


At the End of the Night

by GreySilhouette



Series: Not Sure I'm There Yet [1]
Category: Star Wars - All Media Types, Star Wars Prequel Trilogy, Star Wars: The Clone Wars (2008) - All Media Types
Genre: Alternate Universe - Canon Divergence, Gen
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2020-08-10
Updated: 2020-08-10
Packaged: 2021-03-06 00:15:03
Rating: General Audiences
Warnings: No Archive Warnings Apply
Chapters: 1
Words: 3,882
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/25814149
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/GreySilhouette/pseuds/GreySilhouette
Summary: Having captured Maul, Ahsoka Tano accompanies Rex in delivering him to Coruscant.For her, at least, the Mandalore campaign is over. In a galaxy where the Supreme Chancellor and Dooku both perished in the battle for Coruscant, upon returning to the Republic's capital Ahsoka is faced with a looming question.What now?
Series: Not Sure I'm There Yet [1]
Series URL: https://archiveofourown.org/series/1872940
Comments: 14
Kudos: 67





	At the End of the Night

Ahsoka didn’t sleep well on the trip to Coruscant. A few hours uneasy rest was still better than none though, especially paired with a chance to clean her gear, grab rations, and snatch a quick shower. It had been a long few months.

She met Rex just before she reached the bridge and walked the rest of the way with him in companionable silence. There was a lump in her throat as they both went to stand before the viewpane, the reassuring light of hyperspace flickering over Rex’s face as he nudged her shoulder with his. “I know you’re not staying, but keep in contact this time?”

She nudged his shoulder back a little harder, getting an elbow to the ribs for the trouble, and had to consciously stop herself from continuing to escalate. Not the time. “…Yeah. This comm” she lifted her wrist momentarily to illustrate she meant the built-in one on her arm guard “should work fine on the coruscant network.”

They both knew the lack of a comm hadn’t been why she hadn’t stayed in touch with, well, anyone, before, but his eyes were understanding.

Force, she’d missed him.

“You know what you’re doing next?” he asked quietly. Ahsoka looked sideways, memories tangling in her mind as she wondered what the end of the war actually meant.

“Not really,” she admitted. He sighed.

“Yeah, me either.”

They both turned at the call that they were about to exit hyperspace, Ahsoka only realising a moment later that she’d automatically straightened to attention.

She didn’t dwell on it, centring her balance for the slight jolt as they reverted to realspace.

Someone whistled lowly. Holding back and very deliberately letting Rex and the communications officers deal with the twitchy planet control, Ahsoka didn’t blame them. That was…a lot of debris around the city planet, visible even at their distance where it was possible to see the whole world’s circumference. And see-able patches of the atmosphere were darkened with smoke.

 _We won_ , she reminded herself fiercely. _The Chancellor may be dead, but so is Dooku, and I have faith in Master Obi-Wan and the 212th to deal with Grievous. That’s the major military minds behind the Seppies. And this here was a space battle, mostly; the Separatists weren’t able to deploy their usual tactics on the local population._

And she needed to stop thinking about the various possibilities the senate and separatist powers might take from here. She wasn’t ready to be objective about this, wasn’t ready to get back into the centre of things. The contrast of the damaged planet before her with her memory of sniping at Master Obi-Wan over her feelings at being abandoned for the Republic’s Capital only proved what she’d already known.

Rex finished his conversation, arranging permission to raise their shields from standard to battle-ready on approach to protect from debris and getting their landing coordinates, for both their cruiser and the smaller shuttle that would transport Maul. She put aside her thoughts for later and joined him as he motioned to her, handing off the bridge to his next in command and heading down to the holding area. “We’re handing Maul over to GAR security, then heading to the Coruscant offices to sort all the paperwork. I assume you’re coming with?”

“Yes,” they were the only ones in the corridor, so she allowed herself a sigh. “I’ve likely got paperwork to sort out too from this, after all.” And didn’t have a secure issued datapad for it to be sent to to be completed in her own time. Besides, it was something she could do while not sure where to go after this mission finished.

Her nerves were on edge throughout the whole handover, but despite that it was uneventful, the only surprise being Master Ti’s presence with the Coruscant guard. And that was only because Ahsoka hadn’t expected her to be on planet.

She returned the nod of acknowledgement, slightly relieved that they both had a job to focus on and didn’t have time to talk, then headed over to the offices with Rex, relaxing and catching up a bit more now that they weren’t on duty, musing over the strangeness of seeing Coruscant’s traffic nearly absent bar the emergency services and military vehicles.

The exact forms were new, but there was a well-worn familiarity to the style of the GAR’s paperwork, and the knack came back to her quickly. The only issue she had until the last piece was having to take a break and find a place to open a bank account for her salary for her brief role as an official GAR adviser to be paid into, much to Rex’s amusement.

She could see his point; it was a little funny that this was what tripped her up about working with the GAR as a regular citizen. It was just that the lump sum she’d been paid scuppered the excuse she’d had half-formed about drifting around working odd jobs again, as she had before the Night Owls came for her help. Not that she couldn’t still do that, but she didn’t need to.

She didn’t have _anything_ she needed to do, beyond talking to a few people.

Rex had left to see to his men by the time she got to the last file and had to pause. It wasn’t a form, just a message saying that she had a few more things to sort at the Jedi temple regarding matters under their jurisdiction.

After a few moments staring pensively at it, she took a steadying breath and closed down her borrowed workstation. Well. She’d known she couldn’t avoid it forever.

It was disconcerting being back in the temple, however briefly. The squirming feeling in her gut wasn’t helped by how it was clear everyone there had far bigger concerns than dealing with her.

It was several days now since Anakin and Master Obi-Wan had found the chancellor dead aboard the Invisible hand. He’d hesitated in a way that said there was more to the story, but enough that everyone was rushing around days later?

Then again, it wasn’t like she remembered the last time the position of Supreme Chancellor changed hands to compare it to.

Ahsoka looked around the meeting room she’d been shown to, forcing her mind away from that line of thought. Not her business. She was already having trouble not getting drawn back into everything out of sheer habit, she didn’t need to involve herself in Galactic politics right now.

“Thank you for your assistance in capturing the Sith Lord Maul,” Master Windu said, startling her as he entered the room. He took a chair next to her, looking more tired and strung out than she remembered.

She inclined her head. “Right. Ah, what am I here for?”

“Two things; first, were there any issues transporting Maul?”

She thought about it carefully. “No, though I did include in my report my observations on his mental state, from his tactics and our encounters, as I believe he may be a risk to himself as well as others moving forward.”

He briefly closed his eyes, and she could _feel_ the weight of whatever it was he was releasing to the Force. “Good to know. The second matter is those lightsabers.” He slid a pad over. “Loaning you them was allowable given the exceptional circumstances - just backdate it and we’ll chase down Skywalker’s signature later, he didn’t exactly bother to fill it out at the time - but you can’t keep them.”

Ah.

Ahsoka hesitated, then unhooked her sabers from their clips, fingers lingering as she carefully set them down. She’d known, distantly. It was the Jedi order’s responsibility to keep Temple lightsabers from falling into general circulation. The privilege of permission to carry them came hand in hand with the duties of the Jedi, and she couldn’t have it both ways.

It was still a wrench to give them back up. “Here.”

He nodded, brisk and distracted with whatever message had just pinged to his datapad. “Right. That should be everything squared off. Do you have a comm we can contact for any follow-up issues?”

She sorted out contact details, then asked, “Is Anakin around?”

His expression went slightly pinched. “He left the Temple this morning, as it happens. Officially he’s on leave, so we’re not aware of his location at this time.”

Meaning he was probably at Senator Amidala’s. A weird mix of disappointment and relief swelled in her chest at the news. “Okay, thanks.”

He gathered the pad back up. “I assume you can find your own way out?” At her nod; “Then may the force be with you, Tano.”

“May the Force be with you.”

And that was it.

She wasn’t far from the entrance, but was still interrupted before she could get there by an initiate carrying a satchel. “Miss Tano? Master Koon left this with the quartermaster with the instruction that it be given to you whenever you passed through.”

There was a lump in her throat. “Oh,” she managed, taking it carefully. There were several items within, from the feel of it. “Thank you, Initiate…?”

“Suvo Takka, miss.” Eyes crinkling in a Rodian smile, the initiate bowed and sped off with a hasty, “May the Force be with you!”

“And with you!” she called after them, lips quirking up as amusement at the youngling’s sheer energy briefly broke through her melancholy.

There were still some taxi’s around. She hailed one down, satchel still cradled in her arms as she hopped in and told the droid driver to take her to an address on level 1313.

If Anakin was on leave and with Padme, he should be fine. He could wait. She probably wouldn’t be let past the building’s security, and even if she was Anakin would hardly thank her for interrupting his time with the senator. The more she’d seen of the damage to Coruscant, though, the more concerned she was about what might have happened to her friends there.

The ride down was just long enough for her to carefully take stock of the satchel’s contents; a holopic projector, a few of the mementoes she’d left in her quarters, a set of meditation beads that she _knew_ , those were _Master_ _Plo’s_ , a data cylinder labelled “I figured you might wish for copies of some of these” and a neatly folded piece of flimsiplast with her name written on the outside.

Ahsoka dashed at her eyes, making sure everything was secure and the flap fastened firmly after she tucked it all back in. Then she slung the strap across her torso, tugging her tunic up momentarily to dig some credits out of her hidden pocket-bag for the taxi as a familiar landing platform came into view.

Her limbs were beginning to feel like lead as she paid the driver and vaulted out of the vehicle.

There was less damage down here; the battle had reached the surface but not past it, and for the first time since getting back on planet there wasn’t fallen battle debris everywhere. Ahsoka still swallowed, looking around the empty platform. “Trace?” she called out. “Rafa?”

Silence.

Slipping through to the streets, she took a deep breath. Okay. They weren’t here, that didn’t necessarily mean much. They could be anywhere around here. They could be away, hauling something hopefully-less-illegal-this-time on the Silver Angel.

She hurried over to the laundromat and found it open, but with just a couple of customers inside. “Uh, excuse me? Is Rafa Martez here?”

One of the customers, a young twi’lek man, eyed her warily. “We don’t want any trouble,” he prevaricated, gaze flicking over her.

It took her a moment to realise the issue; months in the middle of a civil war surrounded by Mandalorians and she’d forgotten that here, armour would stand out, generally not in a good way. She winced. “I’m not - we’re friends, this is just because I’m freshly back from off world.”

He shrugged, apparently satisfied enough to let it go. “She went round the back.”

Ahsoka let herself through, looking about. It hadn’t changed much, though there was less clutter than the last time she’d been here. “Rafa?”

Something was dropped, then Rafa Martez popped out from behind some crates, scrap metal pipe in hand. “Who’s - Ahsoka?” she straightened, jaw going slack for a second before she dropped the pipe and hurried over.”Heey, glad you’re still kicking. Wow, you look badass in that getup.”

“I just got back,” Ahsoka shrugged, a touch self-conscious about her armour now that she’d been reminded how it would be viewed, here. “You’re okay? How’s Trace? I heard about the battle here.”

“Yeah, I’m fine. Trace is off on a cargo run - legal, I promise, we’ve been avoiding anything that might have connections back to the Pykes - she left before it all went off here. Should be back tomorrow.”

Ahsoka’s heart jumped. “They haven’t been bothering you?”

Rafa made a face. “Nah, but we’d rather not remind them about us, you know, just in case. And a lot of contacts have stopped talking to us, but with the Silver Angel we’ve got a load more options, so. We’re fine.” She eyed one of Ahsoka’s gauntlets then asked, in a clear change of subject. “Is that genuine Mandalorian armour? Thought there was a blood oath or something involved in getting that.”

Ahsoka went with it, sitting on the nearest crate and huffing a laugh at the veiled concern. “No blood oath. They don’t usually gift it, but I was fighting with them for a couple of months, and there may have been a number of lives saved and assassinations stopped, so.” She spread her hands.

Rafa’s expression was oddly indecipherable for a second before she shook her head. “Your life is wild, you know that? So what’s your plan now?”

Ah. “Right now? Get a change of clothes so people don’t think I’m a bounty hunter or something. Then find a place to sleep, I guess.” She shrugged. “I just came down here to check you guys were okay.”

“You have no idea, do you.”

Ahsoka hesitated, then slumped. “Maul’s captured. The Mandalore campaign’s pretty much over. I’m not ready to head back to the Jedi yet. I don’t even need to wander around looking for odd jobs.” At Rafa’s raised eyebrow, she elaborated, “We had to work with the GAR for the last push. I got paid as a GAR adviser for the operation.”

The other woman whisted. “ _Nice_ going. Come on, I can show you the shops we have around here.”

In the end, Rafa offered the option of staying at her and Trace’s for the night, with the reasoning, “I know Trace’ll be glad to see you.”

 _And you’re not?_ Ahsoka had kept her eye roll internal and agreed, which led to her spending a restless night on the couch, her mind still waking her at every sound after months of the gruelling need to be ready at all times to fight, surrounded by people she didn’t entirely trust.

When Rafa left to check on the launderette early in the morning, Ahsoka gave up on getting any more sleep and pulled the satchel up to where she was curled in her nest of blankets, pulling out the meditation beads. The stones were smooth under the pads of her fingers as the first one clinked upon being shifted.

Shifting the beads every time she reached five steady breaths in and out, she lost track of time until she hit the marker and blinked her eyes open, realising that she was floating 10cm or so over the couch before she gently let go of her focus and returned to the ground, feeling steadier.

She couldn’t decide everything right now, but she could do this much.

Removing the tags from everything she’d bought yesterday, she changed into sturdy grey trousers with secured pocket flaps, a light-blue shirt over a white vest, with black boots and grey leather bracers on her arms.

Snagging a glass of water and one of the protein bars she’d also got yesterday - mmmm, way tastier than rations - she scarfed them down, then set about tidying all her new stuff away into her bags.

The beads, with the warm echoes of Master Plo’s force signature she could feel when touching them, went into her trouser pockets. She wasn’t ready to go back, but she didn’t need to keep running away, either.

And then there was nothing to do, again. Rafa, upon returning, found her restlessly straightening up the living room, having already done several sets of stretches, disassembled, checked over and reassembled her bike (which was in great condition, Trace had clearly made sure to maintain it), repacked everything she had more efficiently, and stared at the letter from Master Plo for a while before deciding to leave it a little longer.

“…You really aren’t used to not having something to do, huh?”

“I’m only just back from a warzone, I’m still a bit jittery,” Ahsoka tried to remind herself and reassure Rafa. “A few days of no one shooting at me and it’ll pass.”

The lack of reply was glaring, and Ahsoka looked up from the refolded blanket in her hands to find Rafa staring out into the distance.

When she spoke, Rafa’s voice was quiet. “Does it really only take you a few days? To get past _everything_?” She didn’t look at Ahsoka, who carefully put the blanket down and stepped up beside her. “We followed what news of Mandalore we could get, you know. It wasn’t much, but what there was - it was awful. Far worse than that thing with Obadiah,” she shuddered, not even seeming to notice, “that was only a few days, and we all got out okay in the end. And Mandalore, you were right in the middle of it.”

Ahsoka considered her answer. Her reflex was that of course she was fine, she was used to this, she had her coping mechanisms firmly in place and knew how to deal with the aftereffects of being in a warzone, but - this wasn’t just about Ahsoka. And even if it had been, the campaign against Maul’s forces had been hard on her, with grimly determined sentients on both sides of the battlefield, limited resources and no backup to call upon. Even before that - if she had actually been fine, she wouldn’t have reacted so badly to the events that Barriss had caused.

“Not everything. That’s always ongoing - for everyone who’s faced traumatic situations, not just me.” She blew out her breath slowly. “I know I’ll be less on edge in a few days because of my experiences fighting the war; Mandalore was pretty bad, but I know how to and have practice dealing with winding down after a campaign. Dealing with everything I experienced takes far longer, but I know that the jitters, specifically, will calm after a few days in a safe situation, so long as I take care of myself in the meantime.” She kept her voice soft. “Trauma isn’t a competition; everyone deals with it at their own pace. I just happen to know mine fairly well.”

Rafa hummed, and silence fell.

The first sign of Trace’s arrival was the shaftside doors rumbling open late in the afternoon. Ahsoka and Rafa abandoned their sabacc decks at the table, where they’d been exchanging variants of the game they’d picked up, to watch The Silver Angel deftly manoeuvre into the space left for it. There was a puff of dust from whatever planet the ship had visited last released along with the steam as the ramp lowered and Trace hurried down. “Rafa? Are you okay, there was so much debris around the planet and parts of the surface are still on fire - Ahsoka?” She did a double-take then returned to hugging Rafa before drawing back to look her over. “None of it reached down here, right? You’re okay?”

“I’m alright.” Rafa shrugged Trace’s hands off, mustering up a smile for her sister. “Don’t worry, it didn’t really get past the surface, and I’ve been here the whole time. But hey!” An arm went around Trace’s shoulders to steer her towards Ahsoka. “Look who showed up again yesterday!”

The look Trace shot Rafa at that made it clear that she knew her older sister was more shaken than she was trying to let on and that she would come back to the topic, but she didn’t resist the shift. “It’s great to see you again! How’ve you been doing, you look pretty tired…”

“I’m doing alright,” Ahsoka grinned slightly, mood lifting at the sight of the new confidence in Trace’s steps, then blinked in surprise as she was also pulled into a quick hug. “It’s good to be back.”

“Yeah, I’d bet.” Trace let her go again quickly, biting her lip, then hurried to ask “Sorry, are hugs okay, there’s not a rule against them right?”

A snort escaped her. “No, hugs are absolutely fine.” And very welcome, given how tense she still felt and the lack of nearby force signatures she could relax comfortably against. “Thanks for taking care of my bike, by the way.”

“Course. Don’t just take off though, we have _got_ to catch up-”

They wandered through to the kitchenette in the main room, chatting about light subjects. Trace’s anecdotes of dealing with port security were pretty funny even if a couple had Ahsoka wincing, Trace and Rafa found Ahsoka’s experiences with actual Mandalorian campaign food (and how utterly that didn’t match up with the galactic memes about it) entertaining, Rafa had tales of unusual customers she had had at the laundromat, and so on.

It got late without them really noticing, and after exchanging glances with Rafa, Trace offered their sofa again, with a casual “if you feel like sticking around a while, it’d be nice to have some company while I’m working through the repair shop’s backlog tomorrow.

That night, Ahsoka fiddled around with her comm until it was all set up and adjusted to the relays she’d need. It wasn’t necessary right now, but once the person she was calling was off-planet again, it would be.

Given the time, it unsurprisingly went to messages. “Hey Rex, just calling to establish that this is what my comm code looks like now it’s hooked into the Coruscant network. It might change again, I’m thinking about getting a non-embedded one since I shouldn’t need the armour here, but I’ll let you know before the switch, if I end up doing that.

“I haven’t seen Anakin yet, he was busy away from the Temple when I passed through, but I’ll probably try calling him tomorrow. Master Plo had some stuff set aside waiting for me that I was given while there, though, and I’m staying with some friends I made before the Mandalore campaign right now.

“How are you and the boys doing? Is the 332nd going to stay a thing, do you know, or are they and the 501st re-merging back to how they were, just with you as commander? You’ve basically been acting as one since I left anyway, from what I was hearing.”

She yawned. “Okay, I’m about to bunk down for the night. See you soon, and take care.

“Goodnight.”

**Author's Note:**

> The titles of both the story and the series are song lyrics from the playlist I put together on my phone for this au. "at the end of the night" is from Get Home by Bastille, and "Not Sure I'm There Yet" is from Young and Menace by Fall Out Boy.
> 
> Let me know what you think!


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